I first met Pavel Cingl through Phil Shoenfelt. I had not seen Phil in ages and he told me to see his band Phil Shoenfelt and Southern Cross. The band was really good and the violin player really grabbed my attention. He would occasionally switch over to playing mandolin. A rock and roll violin player... I have heard of violin in bands from the Velvet Underground and... well, there are others, but a rock and roll mandolin player? Unique, but then again, Pavel is unique with his style of playing. He puts his heart into it. Pavel was born in Teplice, Czech Republic. He started playing violin when he was six. He was expected to go into classical music, but formed a rock band in high school playing guitar and singing. This evolved into a punk band called Ineptus. They were very popular and played at lots of clubs and festivals, but they were not too popular with the Czechoslovakia Communist Party. The communist party said they were too negative and anti-social and were swiftly banned and when you were banned, you were banned. You could not play.
Pavel was a member of the popular Czech band band Nahlas with Ivan Hlas. He met American singer/guitarist/songwriter Brad Stratton, and together with Australian Grahame Ryan they formed a band called Snake Eaters in 1992. Pavel still continues to play in this band with Brad Stratton, Vladimír Vytiska and Jaroslav Kvasnička. In 1997, Pavel met Phil and became a member of Phil Shoenfelt's group Southern Cross along with members Pavel Krtouš and Jaroslav Kvasnička. He now plays rhythm guitar and mandolin in the band, as well as violin. Since 2005, he plays also in duo with Phil Shoenfelt, which is promoted as "Phil Shoenfelt & Pavel Cingl". Pavel has played with many other bands. I saw him last playing with Mark Steiner and his Problems. He was one of the Problems on violin. Pavel plays on film soundtracks, for theatre performances and on Czech TV. Pavel played in the Rowland S. Howard tribute concert which I filmed for Richard Lowenstein´s documentary. Pavel will continue to play throughout the world hypnotizing people with the melodies from his violin and mandolin.